TWI789696B - Vaccum maintenance system - Google Patents

Abstract

A vacuum maintenance system is applied to a wafer cutting machine with a vacuum generating device. The vacuum maintenance system includes a power supply line, a first pipe, a first sensor and a processing unit. The power supply line is electrically connected to the wafer dicing machine to supply power through the wafer dicing machine; the first pipe includes a first end and a second end, the first end is connected to an auxiliary vacuum generating apparatus, and the second end is connected to the wafer cutting machine; the processing unit is electrically connected to the wafer cutting machine and the first sensor. When the processing unit determines that the vacuum generating device cannot provide sufficient vacuum suction or the power supply of the wafer cutting machine is interrupted, the processing unit conducts the first pipe to provide vacuum suction to the wafer cutting machine through the auxiliary vacuum generating device.

Description

vacuum maintenance system

The invention relates to a vacuum maintenance system, especially a vacuum maintenance system applied to a wafer cutting machine.

It is known that before the dicing operation of the wafer, a fixed tape will be pasted on the back of the wafer, and then the wafer will be placed on the wafer dicing machine. Ceramic Disk of Suction. For example, during the wafer dicing operation, the wafer dicing machine will use a dry air generating device (compress dry air, CDA) to generate vacuum suction against the ceramic disk to absorb and fix the wafer to be cut to avoid cutting Wafer displacement during operation affects the accuracy of wafer cutting.

Since the dry gas generating equipment needs power supply to maintain the operation of the device, once a power outage or power failure occurs, the dry gas generating equipment will stop operating. At this time, the ceramic plate itself can still maintain the vacuum adsorption force for several minutes to tens of minutes to fix it. live wafer. But as time goes by, when the adsorption force of the ceramic plate itself disappears, the position of the wafer may be shifted due to the tightening of the fixing tape to loosen. Even if the power supply of the machine is restored later, the shifted wafer can no longer be kept at the original fixed position, so that when the subsequent wafer cutting operation is performed again, the cutting accuracy will be affected, and even the possibility that the wafer must be scrapped , greatly increasing the cost of wafer dicing.

Therefore, how to design a vacuum maintenance system that continuously generates vacuum suction to fix the position of the wafer and is not affected by power failure and offset is really a topic worthy of research.

The purpose of the present invention is to provide a vacuum maintenance system applied to a wafer cutting machine.

To achieve the above purpose, the vacuum maintenance system of the present invention is applied to a wafer cutting machine, and the wafer cutting machine includes a vacuum generating device. The vacuum maintenance system includes a power supply circuit, a first pipeline, a first sensing unit and a processing unit. The power supply line is electrically connected to the wafer cutting machine to supply power through the wafer cutting machine; the first pipeline includes a first end and a second end, the first end is connected to the auxiliary vacuum generating equipment, and the second end is connected to the To the wafer cutting machine; the first sensing unit is used to sense the vacuum suction supply state of the vacuum generating equipment; the processing unit is electrically connected to the wafer cutting machine and the first sensing unit. When the processing unit determines that the vacuum generating device cannot provide sufficient vacuum suction or the power supply of the wafer cutting machine is interrupted, the processing unit turns on the first pipeline to provide vacuum suction to the wafer cutting machine through the auxiliary vacuum generating device .

In one embodiment of the present invention, the first pipeline includes a first valve element, and the first valve element is electrically connected to the processing unit and disposed between the first end and the second end of the first pipeline.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the vacuum maintaining system further includes an auxiliary vacuum generating device.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the auxiliary vacuum generating device includes a gas supply source and a second pipeline, one end of the second pipeline is connected to the gas supply source, and the first end of the first pipeline is connected to the second pipeline. between the ends.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the second pipeline includes a second valve element, and the second valve element is electrically connected to the processing unit and disposed between the first end of the first pipeline and the gas supply source.

In one embodiment of the present invention, when the processing unit determines that the vacuum generating device can provide sufficient vacuum suction and the power supply of the wafer cutting machine is restored, the processing unit controls the first valve to block the first pipeline and controls the second The valve member blocks the second pipeline.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the connection between the first end of the first pipeline and the second pipeline forms an included angle, and the included angle is not greater than 90 degrees.

In an embodiment of the present invention, when the included angle is less than 90 degrees, the first pipeline is biased toward the end of the second pipeline connected to the gas supply source.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the gas supply source is a nitrogen gas supply source or a compressed dry gas supply source.

In one embodiment of the present invention, when the processing unit determines that the vacuum generating device can provide sufficient vacuum suction and the power supply of the wafer cutting machine is restored, the processing unit blocks the first pipeline.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the vacuum maintaining system further includes a second sensing unit electrically connected to the processing unit, and the second sensing unit is used for detecting whether the auxiliary vacuum generating device generates sufficient vacuum suction.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the second sensing unit includes a display module for displaying the sensing result of the second sensing unit.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the vacuum maintenance system further includes a power supply unit electrically connected to the processing unit, and the power supply unit is used to provide additional power to the processing unit.

Accordingly, the vacuum maintenance system of the present invention can replace the original vacuum generating equipment of the wafer cutting machine with auxiliary vacuum generating equipment in the case of power failure or power failure, and continuously provide vacuum suction to the wafer cutting machine to ensure that the wafer The circle is fixed without shifting, reducing the possibility of wafer scrapping.

1,1a: Vacuum maintenance system

10: Power supply line

20: The first pipeline

21: first end

22: Second end

23: The first valve

30: Processing unit

40: The first sensing unit

50: Auxiliary vacuum generating equipment

51: Gas supply source

52: Second pipeline

53: the second valve

60: Second sensing unit

300: Wafer cutting machine

310: Vacuum generating equipment

320: Wafer placement department

330: transmission pipeline

400: Auxiliary vacuum generating equipment

Fig. 1 is a system block diagram of the first embodiment of the vacuum maintenance system of the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a system block diagram of the second embodiment of the vacuum maintaining system of the present invention.

3 is a schematic diagram of the operation of the second embodiment of the vacuum maintenance system of the present invention when the wafer cutting machine is powered normally.

4 is a schematic diagram of the operation of the second embodiment of the vacuum maintenance system of the present invention when the wafer cutting machine cannot be powered normally.

Since the various aspects and embodiments are only illustrative and non-restrictive, after reading this specification, those with ordinary knowledge may also have other aspects and embodiments without departing from the scope of the present invention. According to the following detailed description and scope of patent application, the features and advantages of these embodiments will be more evident.

Herein, "a" or "an" is used to describe the elements and components described herein. This is done for convenience of description only and to provide a general sense of the scope of the invention. Accordingly, such description should be read to include one or at least one and the singular also includes the plural unless it is obvious that it is otherwise meant.

In this article, the terms "first" or "second" and similar ordinal numbers are mainly used to distinguish or refer to the same or similar elements or structures, and do not necessarily imply that these elements or structures are separated in space or time. order. It should be understood that in certain situations or configurations, ordinal numbers may be used interchangeably without affecting the practice of the invention.

As used herein, the term "includes", "has" or any other similar term is intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion. For example, an element or structure containing a plurality of elements is not limited to the elements listed herein, but may include other elements not explicitly listed but generally inherent to the element or structure.

Please refer to FIG. 1 which is a system block diagram of the first embodiment of the vacuum maintenance system of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1 , the vacuum maintenance system 1 of the present invention is applied to a wafer cutting machine 300 . Wafer dicing machine 300 (such as the SAW device manufactured by DISCO) includes a vacuum generating device 310 for fixing wafers, such as a dry gas generating device or a vacuum generating device that can provide similar wafer fixing functions. The aforementioned vacuum generating device 310 will be connected to the wafer placing part 320 of the wafer cutting machine 300 through the transfer pipeline 330, so that the vacuum generating device 310 can generate vacuum suction at the wafer placing part 320 through the transfer pipeline 330 when the vacuum generating device 310 is in operation. , to fix the wafer to be cut.

As shown in FIG. 1 , the vacuum maintenance system 1 of the present invention includes a power supply circuit 10 , a first pipeline 20 , a first sensing unit 40 and a processing unit 30 . The vacuum maintenance system 1 of the present invention is mainly electrically connected to the wafer cutting machine 300 through the power supply line 10, so that the wafer cutting machine 300 serves as a power supply source. For example, the wafer dicing machine 300 uses AC 200V-220V as the main operating power source, and other additional devices of the wafer dicing machine 300 can use DC 24V that has been stepped down and converted as a power source. Accordingly, the vacuum maintenance system 1 of the present invention can obtain the aforementioned DC 24V power supply through the power supply line 10 to maintain its functional operation, eliminating the need to install an additional power supply module.

The first pipeline 20 is mainly used for transmitting vacuum suction. In the present invention, the first pipeline 20 is preset to be blocked (for example, using a valve, etc.), and the first pipeline 20 can be connected to transmit vacuum suction as required. The first pipeline 20 includes a first end 21 and a second end 22 . In this embodiment, the first end 21 is connected to an external auxiliary vacuum generating device 400 (such as another dry gas generating device), and the second end 22 is connected to the transmission pipeline 330 of the wafer dicing machine 300 . Accordingly, when the first pipeline 20 is turned on, the vacuum force generated by the auxiliary vacuum generating device 400 can be transmitted to the wafer cutting machine 300 .

In one embodiment of the present invention, the first pipeline 20 includes a first valve element 23 . The first valve element 23 is disposed between the first end 21 and the second end 22 of the first pipeline 20 , and the first valve element 23 is electrically connected to the processing unit 30 . Accordingly, the opening or closing of the first valve member 23 can be controlled by the processing unit 30 . In the present invention, the first valve member 23 is preset to be closed.

The processing unit 30 is electrically connected to the wafer dicing machine 300 for determining the current power supply status of the wafer dicing machine 300, and receiving or sending corresponding operation instructions to control other functional units. In this embodiment, the processing unit 30 may include components such as a circuit board, a controller, a program-stored memory, a signal input and output module, but the present invention is not limited thereto, and other components may be increased or decreased as required. The processing unit 30 can be connected to the main power supply of the wafer dicing machine 300 or its circuit through at least one electric transmission line, and judge whether the power supply state of the wafer dicing machine 300 is normal by the change of the potential.

The first sensing unit 40 is electrically connected to the processing unit 30 for sensing the current state of the vacuum generating device 310 providing vacuum suction. The first sensing unit 40 can be connected to the flow sensing element in the transmission pipeline 330 of the vacuum generating device 310 through at least one electrical transmission line, and transmit the flow sensing result to the processing unit 30 for the processing unit 30 to judge the vacuum Whether the vacuum suction supply state of the generating device 310 is normal (for example, not lower than 5kg/cm ² ).

Please refer to FIG. 2 which is a system block diagram of the second embodiment of the vacuum maintenance system of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 2 , in this embodiment, the vacuum maintaining system 1 a of the present invention further includes an auxiliary vacuum generating device 50 . The auxiliary vacuum generating device 50 here uses a gas supply system. The auxiliary vacuum generating device 50 includes a gas supply source 51 and a second pipeline 52 . The second pipeline 52 is mainly used to transmit gas. In the present invention, the second pipeline 52 is preset to be blocked (such as using a valve, etc.), and the second pipeline 52 can be connected to transmit gas as required. One end of the second pipeline 52 is connected to the gas supply source 51 , and the other end is an open end. The first end 21 of the first pipeline 20 communicates with two ends of the second pipeline 52 . In one embodiment of the present invention, the gas supply source 51 may be a nitrogen supply source or a compressed dry gas supply source, but the present invention is not limited thereto, and other types of gas may also be used instead.

In terms of pipeline design, the connection between the first end 21 of the first pipeline 20 and the second pipeline 52 forms an included angle, and the included angle is not greater than 90 degrees. In this embodiment, the aforementioned included angle is about 90 degrees, but the present invention is not limited thereto, and the aforementioned included angle may also be smaller than 90 degrees according to different designs. Here, the angle less than 90 degrees is defined as the connection between the first end 21 of the first pipeline 20 and the second pipeline 52 when the first pipeline 20 is deflected to the end of the second pipeline 52 connected to the gas supply source 51. angle.

When the gas supply source 51 of the auxiliary vacuum generating device 50 starts to supply gas, the gas will be transported along the second pipeline 52 toward the other end. Since the gas will pass through the connection between the first end 21 of the first pipeline 20 and the second pipeline 52 when the gas is transmitted along the second pipeline 52, the gas transmitted in the second pipeline 52 will be carried by the siphon principle. The gas in the first pipeline 20 is discharged, and then the first pipeline 20 is promoted to form a vacuum state to generate vacuum suction.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the second pipeline 52 includes a second valve element 53 . The second valve element 53 is disposed between the first end 21 of the first pipeline 20 and the gas supply source 51 , and the second valve element 53 is electrically connected to the processing unit 30 . Accordingly, the opening or closing of the second valve member 53 can be controlled by the processing unit 30 . in this hair In the description, the second valve member 53 is preset to be in the closed state, and the gas supply source 51 is preset to be in the state of continuously supplying gas, but the present invention is not limited thereto.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the vacuum maintaining system 1 a further includes a second sensing unit 60 . The second sensing unit 60 is electrically connected to the processing unit 30 , and the second sensing unit 60 is disposed in the second pipeline 52 . The second sensing unit 60 is used to sense whether the auxiliary vacuum generating device 50 generates sufficient vacuum suction, for example not lower than 5kg/cm ² . In addition, in an embodiment of the present invention, the second sensing unit 60 includes a display module, and the display module is used to display the sensing result of the second sensing unit 60 for the vacuum suction generated by the auxiliary vacuum generating device 50 . The display module here can be an analog instrument component, but the present invention is not limited thereto, and the display module can also be replaced by a digital display device.

The operation principle of the vacuum maintaining system 1a of the present invention will be described below based on the second embodiment. Please refer to Figures 2 to 4 together, wherein Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of the operation of the second embodiment of the vacuum maintenance system of the present invention when the wafer cutting machine is powered normally, and Figure 4 is the second embodiment of the vacuum maintenance system of the present invention Schematic diagram of operation when the wafer dicing machine fails to supply power normally. As shown in FIG. 3 , when the wafer dicing machine 300 is powered normally, the vacuum generating device 310 will continue to operate to provide vacuum suction to the wafer dicing machine 300 through the transmission pipeline 330 . At this time, the processing unit 30 of the vacuum maintenance system 1a of the present invention judges that the vacuum generating device 310 can provide sufficient vacuum suction and the power supply of the wafer cutting machine 300 is normal, so the processing unit 30 will not perform any operation, and the first valve The member 23 remains closed to block the first conduit 20.

As shown in FIG. 4 , when the wafer cutting machine 300 encounters a power failure or a power failure, or the vacuum generating device 310 fails or the vacuum suction provided is insufficient, once the processing unit 30 determines that the vacuum generating device 310 cannot provide sufficient vacuum suction or The power supply of the wafer cutting machine 300 is interrupted, which means that the wafer cutting machine 300 may not be able to provide a stable vacuum suction force for the wafer. At this time, the processing unit 30 will immediately control the opening of the second valve 53 to conduct the second pipeline 52, and control the opening of the first valve 23 to conduct the first pipeline 20. As the second pipeline 52 is opened, the gas supplied by the gas supply source 51 will be transported along the second pipeline 52, and will pass through the connection between the first end 21 of the first pipeline 20 and the second pipeline 52. The principle of siphon causes the first pipeline 20 to form a vacuum state to generate vacuum suction. Accordingly, the vacuum maintenance system 1a of the present invention can provide a non-electrically driven auxiliary vacuum generating device 50 to continuously provide vacuum suction to the wafer cutting machine 300, replacing the vacuum generating device 310 of the wafer cutting machine 300 to maintain Wafer fixation.

Since the power supply of the wafer cutting machine 300 is restored, or when the failure of the vacuum generating device 310 is eliminated or sufficient vacuum suction can be provided, it is possible that the wafer cutting machine 300 is in a state that has just been restarted or shortly after a power failure, so that the operation of the machine is still possible. unstable. Accordingly, the processing unit 30 must determine that the vacuum generating device 310 can provide sufficient vacuum suction, and when the power supply of the wafer cutting machine 300 is restored, the processing unit 30 will control the first valve 23 to close to block the first pipeline 20 , and control the second valve member 53 to close to block the second pipeline 52 . As the first pipeline 20 is blocked, the auxiliary vacuum generating device 50 no longer generates vacuum suction; and as the second pipeline 52 is blocked, the gas supplied by the gas supply source 51 no longer leaks to the second pipeline 52, to save gas consumption. Accordingly, the vacuum generating device 310 of the wafer dicing machine 300 can regain the dominance of generating vacuum suction to ensure uninterrupted generation of vacuum suction.

In addition, in another embodiment of the present invention, the vacuum maintenance system further includes an auxiliary power supply unit. The auxiliary power supply unit can be electrically connected to the processing unit, and the auxiliary power supply unit can provide extra power to the processing unit, so that when the power supply line fails to supply power normally, the processing unit can still obtain power to maintain operation. Here, the auxiliary power supply unit can be a battery module or an element with similar functions.

To sum up, the vacuum maintenance system of the present invention can be combined with the wafer cutting machine in an external manner. Once the wafer cutting machine encounters a power failure or a power outage, the vacuum maintenance system of the present invention can be used without external Under the condition of power supply, vacuum suction is continuously provided to the wafer cutting machine to ensure that the wafer is fixed without deviation and reduces the possibility of wafer scrapping.

The above-mentioned embodiments are only auxiliary descriptions in nature, and are not intended to limit the embodiments of the subject matter of the application or the applications or uses of these embodiments. Furthermore, while at least one exemplary embodiment has been presented in the foregoing description, it should be appreciated that a wide variety of variations are possible. It should also be appreciated that the embodiments described herein are not intended to limit the scope, use, or configuration of claimed subject matter in any way. Rather, the foregoing description will provide those skilled in the art with a convenient guide for implementing one or more of the described embodiments. Furthermore, various changes may be made in the function and arrangement of elements without departing from the scope defined by the claims, which include known equivalents and all foreseeable equivalents at the time of filing this patent application.

1: Vacuum maintenance system

10: Power supply line

20: The first pipeline

21: first end

22: Second end

23: The first valve

30: Processing unit

40: The first sensing unit

300: Wafer cutting machine

310: Vacuum generating equipment

320: Wafer placement department

330: transmission pipeline

400: Auxiliary vacuum generating equipment

Claims (13)

A vacuum maintenance system is applied to a wafer cutting machine, the wafer cutting machine includes a vacuum generating device, the vacuum maintaining system includes: a power supply line, electrically connected to the wafer cutting machine, by The wafer cutting machine supplies power; a first pipeline includes a first end and a second end, the first end is connected to an auxiliary vacuum generating device, and the second end is connected to the wafer cutting machine platform; a first sensing unit for sensing the state of vacuum suction provided by the vacuum generating device; and a processing unit electrically connected to the wafer cutting machine table and the first sensing unit, wherein when the processing unit When judging that the vacuum generating device cannot provide sufficient vacuum suction or the power supply of the wafer cutting machine is interrupted, the processing unit turns on the first pipeline to provide vacuum suction to the wafer cutting machine through the auxiliary vacuum generating device . The vacuum maintenance system as described in claim 1, wherein the first pipeline includes a first valve member, the first valve member is electrically connected to the processing unit and is disposed between the first end of the first pipeline and the between the second ends. The vacuum maintaining system as described in claim 2 further includes the auxiliary vacuum generating device. The vacuum maintenance system as described in claim 3, wherein the auxiliary vacuum generating device includes a gas supply source and a second pipeline, one end of the second pipeline is connected to the gas supply source, and the first pipeline The first end communicates with the two ends of the second pipeline. The vacuum maintenance system as described in claim 4, wherein the second pipeline includes a second valve, the second valve is electrically connected to the processing unit and is arranged between the first end of the first pipeline and the Between gas supply sources. The vacuum maintaining system as described in claim 5, wherein when the processing unit determines that the vacuum generating device can provide sufficient vacuum suction and the power supply of the wafer cutting machine is restored, the processing unit controls the first valve to block The first pipeline controls the second valve to block the second pipeline. The vacuum maintaining system as claimed in claim 4, wherein the first end of the first pipeline forms an included angle with the communication part of the second pipeline, and the included angle is not greater than 90 degrees. The vacuum maintaining system according to claim 7, wherein when the included angle is less than 90 degrees, the first pipeline is biased toward the end of the second pipeline connected to the gas supply source. The vacuum maintaining system according to claim 4, wherein the gas supply source is a nitrogen gas supply source or a compressed dry gas supply source. The vacuum maintaining system according to claim 1, wherein when the processing unit determines that the vacuum generating device can provide sufficient vacuum suction and the power supply of the wafer cutting machine is restored, the processing unit blocks the first pipeline. The vacuum maintaining system as described in claim 1 further includes a second sensing unit electrically connected to the processing unit, and the second sensing unit is used to detect whether the auxiliary vacuum generating device generates sufficient vacuum suction. The vacuum maintaining system as claimed in claim 11, wherein the second sensing unit includes a display module for displaying the sensing result of the second sensing unit. The vacuum maintenance system as described in claim 1 further includes a power supply unit electrically connected to the processing unit, and the power supply unit is used to provide additional power to the processing unit.

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